japan

After Englishman John Blackthorne is lost at sea, he awakens in a place few Europeans know of and even fewer have seen--Nippon. Thrust into the closed society that is seventeenth-century Japan, a land where the line between life and death is razor-thin, Blackthorne must negotiate not only a foreign people, with unknown customs and language, but also his own definitions of morality, truth, and freedom. As internal political strife and a clash of cultures lead to seemingly inevitable conflict, Blackthorne's loyalty and strength of character are tested by both passion and loss, and he is torn between two worlds that will each be forever changed. Powerful and engrossing, capturing both the rich pageantry and stark realities of life in feudal Japan, Sh?gun is a critically acclaimed powerhouse of a book. Heart-stopping, edge-of-your-seat action melds seamlessly with intricate historical detail and raw human emotion. Endlessly compelling, this sweeping saga captivated the world to become not only one of the best-selling novels of all time but also one of the highest-rated television miniseries, as well as inspiring a nationwide surge of interest in the culture of Japan. Shakespearean in both scope and depth, Sh?gun is, as the New York Times put it, "...not only something you read--you live it." Provocative, absorbing, and endlessly fascinating, there is only one: Sh?gun.

Told in diary format, 14-year-old Franny journals about the year when she moves to Japan to be with her father and all the adventures she has learning a new culture, fitting in at a new school, and navigating feelings for more than one boy.

In a small coastal town just a stone's throw from Tokyo, a prestigious piano competition is underway. Over the course of two feverish weeks, three students will experience some of the most joyous--and painful--moments of their lives. Though they don't know it yet, each will profoundly and unpredictably change the others, for ever. Aya was a child prodigy who abruptly gave up performing after the death of her mother, and is now trying for a comeback; Masaru, a childhood friend of Aya who came to the piano through her insistence that he learn to play, is now reunited with her after many years, and is equally invested in both his and her success; Akashi, who is older and married, works in a music store and is the "old man" of the competitors, hoping for a final chance at success; and Jin, a sixteen-year-old prodigy, the free spirited son of a beekeeper who travels constantly, and has no formal training (and doesn't even own a piano) yet whose mesmerizing insight into music has brought him to the attention of one of the world's most celebrated pianists, the late Maestro Von Hoffman. Each of them will break the rules, awe their fans and push themselves to the brink. But at what cost?.

"Plagued by a maddening anxiety, the terrible disconnect between his own concept of happiness and the joy of the rest of the world, Yozo Oba plays the clown in his dissolute life, holding up a mask for those around him as he spirals ever downward, locked arm-in-arm with death"--Provided by publisher.

Oh! is a hybrid novel, with nonfiction and artwork mixed in. A jaded American, deadened by consumer culture, becomes dangerously obsessed with a group suicide in Japan. The main storyline follows Zack Hara, a young Japanese American searching for an emotional life while traveling in Japan. Zack finds an ally in a professor and underground poet who introduces him to the concept of mono no aware, roughly translated as the emotive essence of things, or the sadness in beauty. The professor, grieving for a missing daughter, assigns Zack a set of mysterious tasks. Zack?s search for self-discovery turns into a search for the professor?s missing daughter, and draws him into the tragic phenomenon of suicide clubs. Structured as a thriller with a most unexpected finale, Shimoda?s novel unravels like a Japanese scroll?one cannot put it down until the last scene comes into full view and, with it, the realization that the realm of feelings ( mono no aware ) is far from being an innocent enterprise; it carries risks that one must be ready to pay in order to fully understand. This is a brilliant novel?it makes the reader feel the pleasure of thinking. ??Michael F. Marra, professor of Japanese literature, UCLA.

When Marie Mutsuki Mockett journeyed to her family's Buddhist temple in 2012, radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster prohibited her from moving her grandfather's bones. As Japan grieved for the thousands killed and wounded in the earthquake and tsunami, Mockett tried to come to terms with her own overwhelming grief. Guided by Zen priests she sought consolation in rituals that disturbed, haunted, and finally uplifted her.

The magic tree house takes Jack and Annie back in time to fedudal Japan where the siblings learn about the ways of the Ninja.

A fictionalized autobiography in which eleven-year-old Yoko escapes from Korea to Japan with her mother and sister at the end of World War II.